The continuous development of UE (User equipment) has resulted in an increasing number of applications, that is, clients installed on the user equipment. When these clients run, the UE generally needs to frequently exchange information with a server on a network side.
In the prior art, in one aspect, the UE and the server may periodically send a detection packet to each other, so as to separately detect online statuses of a client in the UE and the server, and this detection on an online status is referred to as online detection. In another aspect, the UE may periodically send a detection packet to the server, so as to detect whether a new message arrives at the server, and this detection on whether the new message arrives at the server is referred to as update detection. For wireless communication, an air interface connection needs to be first established between a wireless network entity and UE before the foregoing two detection packets are sent. When data is transmitted between the server and the UE, the air interface connection is maintained. When no data is transmitted between the server and the UE within a preset time, the air interface connection is released, so as to save an air interface resource. The preset time is referred to as a time during which the air interface connection is maintained.
However, if a time during which an air interface connection is maintained is shorter than a detection packet sending period, the UE needs to re-establish an air interface connection to the wireless network entity each time a detection packet is sent. If a time during which an air interface connection is maintained is longer than a detection packet sending period, the air interface connection is maintained between the UE and the wireless network entity each time a detection packet is sent. Therefore, a detection method is urgently required to change current situations in which the UE frequently establishes an air interface connection to the wireless network entity, and an air interface connection is maintained between the UE and the wireless network entity for a long time.